Day 177 Suppose

June 4, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project
during my 70th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each
day’s gift.)

I was sitting in my car today and getting ready to
pull off a parking lot when I heard something on my roof. It sounded like the
first big heavy raindrops before a downpour. I waited for the rain but it didn’t
happen and this made me get out of the car to check why my car was the only one
hit by rain. I was greeted by a yellow Ritz cracker and several ants carrying
cracker crumbs away. They looked a little confused to be on my car roof because
they were going in circles. I have to conclude that a seagull or some
other bird found this cracker on the ground, along with the busy ants, grabbed
it, took flight and accidentally dropped it as it was flying over my car. This
isn’t quite as odd as the time I was driving down Rt. #100 and a mouse suddenly
scurried about on my windshield but that’s another story. This cracker started
me thinking about the random nature of the universe.

So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure
randomness." ~ Sidney Poitier

What are the odds that this cracker would fall on
my roof? What are the odds that I might not have existed? Suppose my paternal grandfather
had not emigrated from Germany to the U.S.? Suppose one of my maternal
grandparents had not lived in southern Maryland where they met? Suppose my
parents had not attended the same church and had never met at all? Suppose another
tiny sperm had reached a different egg? In
the path that leads to me, there are so many points where things might have twisted
and led in another direction. Some days I feel incredibly lucky to be here at
all.